Rachat the Devil

My dark past will never let me rest, the only solace I find is bathed in the light of the moon. Tell me, have you ever danced with a devil in the pale moonlight?

Special Equipment:

Appearance:

Rachat is a dour man, with a face as unforgiving as the north face of a granite mountain. Lines crease and wrinkle his skin as if he has never given thought to a smile, or a laugh. His hair has half faded from its youthful dark auburn to a mixture of grey and chestnut brown, his lips are pale, yet his eyes are not old. His eyes hold the shine of the immortal, for Rachat is not of pure birth, as his father was a devil summoned to this world. His teeth are too sharp, and his eyes are the piercing green of hellflame.

Background:

The tale of Rachat began with a small cult, one dedicated to the powers of the Hell realms. These cultists made regular black masses, and made mockery of the churches, defiling their rites and rituals to please their patron devil. It was on the Eve of the Feast of Souls, when the restless dead are risen from their uneasy beds to trouble the world, that Rachat was concieved.

By ritual and the blood of infants placed on the great stone altar at the crossroads of the kingdom was their devil summoned. The devil appeared in his grandeur, striking many of the cultists blind, and some mad. He laughed, and bade the female cultists to surrender to his will. Overhwhelmed they thus submitted, and of the seven, only one survived the coupling.

Rachat was born, half feral and wild, tearing his way free from the womb in the manner of the devil-born. His mother died silently as she knew her fate and took potent herbs that would send her into a dreamless slumber that she knew she would never awaken from. The infnat was found quickly, as the cultists from afar had prophesied his birth by divining the stars and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals.

He was raised and tutored in the worship of his true father, and the prophecy was made known to him. Rachat was disgusted, he had no interest in being the mortal goon of a half-deranged devil. There was spite and the malice of his father in his veins as he defied the will of the devil who sired him. He swore to die before serving, as the proud do not bend knee even when it would serve them better to do so in false pretense.

In a rage, Rachat slew the other cultists, killing those who had raised him, brought him up from a suckling child to the full grown man he had become. Thrice he was struck mortal wounds, telling blows that should have brought his life to an end, spilling out in sprays of vermillion blood.

Nay, this I will not allow. Know this, until the fruition of my plans thou art immortal. No blade nor injury shall end your life. Age may weigh upon you, but it will not take thy vitality. Only once thou hast completed my design and my dominion is made manifest, shall you know the taste of death. And thus his father, a devil among devils gave him his great and terrible black gift.

After that day, Rachat swore to oppose his father in all of his plans. The dominion of that fell devil would only come over his cooling corpse. Since then, Rachat has become a potent swordsman, the better to face and destroy the mortal servants of the infernal. His blade is moderatly enchanted, allowing the silvered steel to bite into the flesh and the bone of the infernal as most are immune to plain steel and other weapons mundane.

Rachat has a number of powers that stem from his infernal heritage. He has greater than normal strength. He is not massively strong, but is certainly as strong as a body builder, or two or three regular men. Should he use his sword, he can cleave stone with it, but this is something he rarely does. He can see in the dark as well as a cat, and he has an uncanny sixth sense that warns him of danger. His eyes flare red, and he knows what direction danger is coming from and what general form it is in. He could not identify who, or the specific type of weapon, but he could tell that someone was armed and waiting to ambush him when he stepped behind the tavern to piss out his evening helping of beer.

Roleplaying Notes:

Rachat has outgrown his fiery days. He has learned that the plans of his father are larger than individual cells of cultists, they span nations and guilds, cities and entire peoples. This is also tempered by the fact that despite openly warring against his father, his father has not seen to strike him, or curse him with the foul powers at his command. It would be easy for such a devil to seek out his own flesh and blood and extinguish its mortal life with ease. The devil has not even withdrawn his power from Rachat, leaving him effectively immortal. This greatly concerns Rachat as he does not know if he is doing the right thing, and so indecision gnaws at him. Perhaps in playing the antagonist, he is doing exactly as his sire wishes him to. Sometimes, this leads Rachat to do…irrational things, to throw off the plans.

Plot Hooks

Sins of the Father - Rachat is correct in his assumptions, he has become a tool of his sire. Instead of damaging his plans, his efforts have instead weakened rival devils and their cults. The sire grows ever stronger and the PCs are called upon to deal with the increasing menace. Rachat can realize his deception and aide the PCs, or fall completely and tragically to his infernal blood, becoming his sire’s trusted lieutenant. The fall is more painfull as Rachat has desired to see good in the world as he hunts and slays those who would bring it all down into a dark age of blood and death.

The Benefactor - In the manner of the elderly Van Helsing, Rachat offers information and advice to the PCs, as well as directing their efforts and actions. The PCs can face devils, cultists and other sorts of malicious stuff with the faint confidence of the ‘old master’ who has their backs.

Against All Odds - Rachat has been opposing his father’s plans, and with great success. The old devil has been weakened to the point that he can no longer remove the powers he bestowed upon his child. To this end, the devil uses a ruse to bring the devil hunting PCs to Rachat, and revealing his infernal heritage. Do they believe the words of the infernal old man, or do they fall for the lies of the true devil whispering in their ears?

The Vessel - Once Rachat has accomplished certain goals, and the planets come into the correct alignment, the devil will subsume Rachat’s soul and mind, and fill the body. Made incarnate, the devil will call forth the legions of Hell and make war against the world of man. Can the PCs kill something immortal?

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Feel free to link Maggot. I have found that posting characters from my own games generally generates a mediocre, or very little responce, so most of the NPCs I post are pretty much free to use, so long as they are not out right 'stolen'

Echo, so long as they are unique and worthy individuals, there is no reason to shy away from creating a batch of Half-demons. I was inspired by sTYKe's Kairos demon, or by what it could have been, especially the part about moonlight.

A note on Rachat's race, if I list him as Half-Devil, it conjures the idea of some sort of bizarre horned and fork-tongued monstrosity. Rachat appears, and acts human, and other than a few oddities, such as a taste for undercooked meat and his eyes, passes for human very easily.

So Scras, not so much a half-demon as a human blessed (or possible cursed) with divine (or possibly demonic) powers, depending on your viewpoint - this I like a lot (fits with the kind of mythic backgrounds I prefer).

Solid back-story and great motivations - I particularly like the uncertainty in his soul ("Am I really opposing my demon father, or am I doing his perverse will?")

The only thing I worry about is his invincibility - perhaps a little too powerful (after all, if he can't die, how can he ever lose?) - could be workable if it took time for him to resurrect (say normal recovery time for the amount of damage taken to "kill" him), during which time he is essentially dead (or in a coma if you prefer)

Good solid character - would give him a 5 but downgraded slightly for the invincibility gripe - 4/5

The actual half-thing is a pretty good take on an old and battered idea. What I find more exhilarating is the plot hooks on the end of the entry. Without them the post would have been ok, but the possibilites of the plot hooks made the NPC much, much better.

Of course the hooks have been used before, in films and comics where the helpful character suddenly is engulfed in flame or changes shape into someone not so nice (This is usually where he erupts into a mocking and sinister laughter :)

Still it is easy to use the hooks without resorting to those cliches I just mentioned, so I'd have to say that you have done very, very good.

Well done. Tho, I'm having a hard time determining what his alignment would be. Is he actually good, or more, chaotic neutral? Or does it depend on what day you catch him? Anyhow, very well written, and I really like all the directions one could go with this. Bravo.

Freetext

1971 Dodge DynaMax

The Dodge DynaMax is a rare care, coming at exactly the wrong time in history. The End of the muscle car era was nigh, and the market was already filled out with GTOs, Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles, Novas and a dozen other high performance poor handling vehicles. The DynaMax had a plan to dominate the market with a combination of factory turbochargers and a complex eight speed gearbox. The machine was planned to triumph over the human driver element. What ended up happening was excess costs and mechanical issues saw the turbochargers removed and replaced with a conventional supercharger, and the eight speed transmission ended up being the bane of the car's existence. More DynaMaxes were destroyed or totalled by transmission failures than anything else. The car remains an ugly and ambitious reminder of a day gone by